Editing Nikita Khrushchev (section)

=== Stalin's final years ===
[[File:Mao, Bulganin, Stalin, Ulbricht Tsedenbal.jpeg|thumb|upright=1.4|Joseph Stalin (third from right) presiding over a ceremony commemorating his 71st birthday a few years before his death.]]
From mid-December 1949, Khrushchev served as head of the Party in Moscow city and province. His biographer Taubman suggests that Stalin most likely recalled Khrushchev to Moscow to balance the influence of [[Georgy Malenkov]] and security chief [[Lavrentiy Beria]], who were widely seen as Stalin's heirs.{{sfn|Taubman|2003|p=210}} The aging leader rarely called Politburo meetings. Instead, much of the high-level work of government took place at dinners hosted by Stalin for his inner circle of Beria, Malenkov, Khrushchev, Kaganovich, [[Kliment Voroshilov]], [[Vyacheslav Molotov]], and [[Nikolai Bulganin]]. Khrushchev took early naps so that he would not fall asleep in Stalin's presence; he noted in his memoirs, "Things went badly for those who dozed off at Stalin's table."{{sfn|Khrushchev|2006|p=43}}

In 1950, Khrushchev began a large-scale housing program for Moscow. Five- or six-story apartment buildings became ubiquitous throughout the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Tompson|1995|p=99}} Khrushchev had prefabricated reinforced concrete used, greatly speeding up construction.{{sfn|Taubman|2003|p=226}} These [[Residential building series|structures]] were completed at triple the construction rate of Moscow housing from 1946 to 1950, lacked elevators or balconies, and were nicknamed ''[[khrushchyovka]]'' by the public, but because of their shoddy workmanship sometimes disparagingly called ''Khrushchoba'', combining Khrushchev's name with the Russian word ''trushchoba'', meaning "slum".<ref>{{cite book |title=Vocabulary of Soviet Society and Culture: A Selected Guide to Russian Words, Idioms, and Expressions of the Post-Stalin Era, 1953–1991 |author=Irina H. Corten |page=[https://archive.org/details/vocabularyofsovi00cort/page/64 64] |publisher=Duke University Press |date=1992 |isbn=978-0-8223-1213-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/vocabularyofsovi00cort/page/64}}</ref> In 1995, almost 60,000,000&nbsp;residents of the former Soviet Union still lived in these buildings.{{sfn|Tompson|1995|p=99}}

In his new positions, Khrushchev continued his ''kolkhoz'' consolidation scheme, which decreased the number of collective farms in [[Moscow Oblast]] by about 70%. This resulted in farms that were too large for one chairman to manage effectively.{{sfn|Tompson|1995|pp=100–101}} Khrushchev also sought to implement his agro-town proposal, but when his lengthy speech on the subject was published in ''[[Pravda]]'' in March 1951, Stalin disapproved of it. The periodical quickly published a note stating that Khrushchev's speech was merely a proposal, not policy. In April, the Politburo disavowed the agro-town proposal. Khrushchev feared that Stalin would remove him from office, but the leader mocked Khrushchev, then allowed the episode to pass.{{sfn|Taubman|2003|pp=228–230}}

On 1 March 1953, Stalin had a massive [[stroke]]. As terrified doctors attempted treatment, Khrushchev and his colleagues engaged in an intense discussion as to the new government. On 5 March, Stalin died.{{sfn|Taubman|2003|pp=236–241}}

Khrushchev later reflected on Stalin:

<blockquote>
Stalin called everyone who didn't agree with him an "enemy of the people." He said that they wanted to restore the old order, and for this purpose, "the enemies of the people" had linked up with the forces of reaction internationally. As a result, several hundred thousand honest people perished. Everyone lived in fear in those days. Everyone expected that at any moment there would be a knock on the door in the middle of the night and that knock on the door would prove fatal&nbsp;... <nowiki>[P]</nowiki>eople not to Stalin's liking were annihilated, honest party members, irreproachable people, loyal and hard workers for our cause who had gone through the school of revolutionary struggle under Lenin's leadership. This was utter and complete arbitrariness. And now is all this to be forgiven and forgotten? Never!{{sfn|Khrushchev|2006|pp=167–168}}
</blockquote>